Formulaic Film Essay

Hollywood film has been a dominant force in the world of film due to its box office success that comes through archetypical forms that appeal to the masses and allows for them to be entertained. The film industry in Latin America has had a more challenging time creating films that are as commercially successful which would allow the films in Latin American countries to be able to create a stronger national cinema identity. Though much of Latin America appears to be further underdeveloped than the Western world, the film industries in these Latin Americans countries have a remarkable ability to make social commentary as well as adapt their strategies of carrying out that message overtime. Latin American films have had the ability to acclimate …show more content…
The filmmakers were able to do this by reworking the formulaic film in order for it to be adventitious to the local concern. The thought of formulaic film changed in that before there was heavy support from Hollywood film creating an obligatory form resulting in a false representation of the local. But the ideology of displaying local concern through radical means of the Cinema Novo was able to shift in order to have a larger audience. the larger audience and voice of local concern would come through the utilization of formulaic film in which is reworked for a specific country. A film that is a good example of this is Cuba’s film, “Juan de los Muertos.” This film is drawing on a very popular narrative of recent years of the zombie apocalypse, and using this narrative to comment on national issues. This film responds intelligently to the desolation and zombie-like state of many Cubans post Special Period through the film by the representation of the governmental response to the zombie outbreak by describing them as political dissonant from America instead of addressing the issue that the island of Cuba is infested and is dying. Through farce, the characters of the film are making a strong political response to the government on the island and take a stance the same as the Memorias, just through an aesthetically different approach. This difference in approach from radical cinema to familiar and entertaining formula allows for there to be greater commercial success thus creating a larger reach of film within the country to respond to the nation. This newly utilized type of film formula allows for Hollywood conventions to be utilized, but in a cognizant